MY NEW TOOL CHEST FOR MY MACHINIST TOOLS

[wizard69]

Can produce woodwork, but I'm no cabinet maker. Looking up sheet goods today, as I've no sufficient or proper material for the project. I figure good cabinet ply throughout and the case of that 11 layer stuff. Veneer isn't a detraction and storing heavy tools in large drawers of solid wood sounds iffy. Haven't worded a good search for plans yet. Been sketching mentally, high-boy sized, on a riser with slots for pallet jack, flat-topped like a piano keyboard lid. Not up to doors yet. Have plenty of room to use effectively. Seems it'll be similar to map/ blueprint cabinet, just not so deep.
Are there any woodworker sites you like?

There are a lot of plans and different approaches to machinist chests and tool boxes out there. Shopsmith magazine has featured designs over the years. I pretty sure other wood working magazines have also covered this but Shopsmith is the only wood working magazine that I have a long history with. There are books dedicated to toolboxes, one is by Iim Tolpin called The Toolbox Book.

Gerstner style toolboxes are a lot of work, something I can’t consider until retirement. If then! You mentioned dressers which in fact can be good storage solutions for the lighter bulky shop materials. The good thing here is that they can be had either free or cheap second hand. You can’t put 200 pound vises or rotary tables in them but if one is reasonable a lot of shop tools and materials can go into one.

I’ve actually have considered a toolbox with metal drawers upon which are fastened wood faces. I don’t have the tools for the sheet metal work at the moment but the idea here is that you gain a bit of area and end up with more rugged drawers. It would also expand my sheetmetal skills. I’ve even considered cast aluminum for the same skills building challenge. In either case they would run on plain runners just like a wood chest.

Currently my steel tool boxes are overflowing with several decades of tool accumulation plus stuff from my fathers passing. I really question where to put it all.

[wizard69]

Hey Duke, fantastic work!!!!! As one that sometimes struggles to get the results I want in the wood shop I can relate to the amount of work that goes into something like this.

[DUKESALLEY]

Hi Toolmaker51 the "map/blueprint" cabinet configuration is basically the way to go other wise as you say tools will get plied on top of one another. The deepest drawer in my tool chest is 3.5" and that's for items that are large because of their cases for instance a set of 64 round hole gauges that that are in a drill index. I'm a little anal about keeping my tools in an exact order in one layer. My wife says I treat my tools as if I am displaying a butterfly collection. Even more common tools like combination wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers pliers etc. which incidentally I keep in stand up rolling metal tool chests are kept in order by size, first off it saves lots of time not having to look for something and secondly, I automatically know if one of my tools grew feet and took a walk. That's the reason for the doors on my instrument case.
Nothing wrong with multi ply plywood we call it Baltic Birch, it's stronger and much less likely to warp. I used solid oak because I had a lot of it and I wanted to make something of a higher quality than a Gerstner chest.
I don't visit woodworking sites much, most of them are geared towards the guy who just does woodworking on the weekends, that sounds like I'm thumbing my nose at that and seriously I'm not. The fact remains I'm 71 years old, I've been doing woodwork since I was 16 when I started serving an apprenticeship in a furniture shop with old time craftsmen who by the way were afraid to teach a new kid anything for fear they would take their job. I'm really a better woodworker than machinist so I do spend time on machinist sites and I do learn a lot on them. For ideas, I browse Pintrest or I search Google images. Well good luck with your tool box project
Best regards, Dukes

[DUKESALLEY]

Thank you for the kind words Wizard69

[drivermark]

DUKESALLEY,
Very nice cabinet almost too nice for "just tools" also kudos for the 3 r's (reduce, recycle ,reuse)

[Toolmaker51]

Hi Toolmaker51 the "map/blueprint" cabinet configuration is basically the way to go.....I don't visit woodworking sites much, most of them are geared towards the guy who just does woodworking on the weekends, that sounds like I'm thumbing my nose at that and seriously I'm not. The fact remains I'm 71 years old, I've been doing woodwork since I was 16 when I started serving an apprenticeship in a furniture shop with old time craftsmen who by the way were afraid to teach a new kid anything for fear they would take their job. I'm really a better woodworker than machinist so I do spend time on machinist sites and I do learn a lot on them. For ideas, I browse Pintrest or I search Google images. Well good luck with your tool box project
Best regards, Dukes

Long range mentoring is possible, [Hello, HMT.net!] and this ups planning by several levels. If not restricted by winter, there'd be fresh Baltic Panels next to my saw, right now. Meanwhile,time to register on Pinterest. I gave up them for content interrupted by the blocking window, long ago.
Come on Spring!

[old_toolmaker]

DUKESALLEY

Very nice work and a great use of salvaged material!

[DUKESALLEY]

Thank you drivermark I always try to use recycled material, I would rather spend my money on "just tools"

[DUKESALLEY]

Thank you old_toolmaker I get an extra sense of accomplishment knowing that I created something out of someone else's trash, in addition to doing my part to help save the environment. I've admired your skills since I first saw your posts
Dukes

[DIYer]

Thanks DUKESALLEY! We've added your Machinist's Tool Chest to our Toolboxes category,
as well as to your builder page: DUKESALLEY's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Machinist's Tool Chest by DUKESALLEY

tags: storage, chest